Carl Cumiskey was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and sentenced to ten years in jail in February 2017 following an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).  As finance director at H2O Networks Ltd (H2O) Cumiskey had been one of four individuals found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud against two business lenders, Barclays Bank and KBC Lease (UK) Ltd (KBC), a subsidiary of the Belgian banking group KBC.

Cumiskey, with two others from the company Total Asset Ltd trading as Total Asset Finance, was convicted of conspiring to create, sign and sell falsely inflated or entirely false contracts from the company H2O to business lenders Barclays and KBC.  His criminal benefit from the fraud was agreed by the court to have been £271,706.

H2O supplied fibre-optic internet cable connections with the unique selling point that sewers would be used as channels for the internet cables.  They targeted public institutions such as local authorities, universities, colleges and the NHS with long-term payment contracts.

At the original trial, His Honour Judge Gledhill QC told the defendants: ‘The evidence against each of you was compelling. Not one of you has accepted dishonest involvement in these offences. Of course, you have each accepted that with hindsight that fraud was committed, but have sought to exonerate yourselves. One of the least attractive aspects of the case has been the attempts of each of you to blame others, including each other, for what happened.’

Report by Pat Sweet